Plastic bags are a good way to sow before the spring weather comes
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 year, 6 months AGO
Columbia Basin Garden Club President Valerie Parrott shows a plant she’s started in a resealable plastic bag. The plants will be ready to transplant in mid-May, she said.
JOEL MARTIN/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
Plants that have been started in plastic bags can be stacked up on racks until it’s time to put them outside.
Keep plants in plastic bags moderately wet, spritzing them as needed.
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | February 21, 2025 1:00 AM
MOSES LAKE — Winter may be wheezing out its last gasps, but we’re still a ways off from time to put most spring plants outdoors. Seeds can be planted ahead of time in milk jugs or ice cube trays, but there’s a third medium that’s had some success: plastic resealable bags.
“You can start sweet peas in bags,” said Valerie Parrott, president of the Columbia Basin Garden Club. “You can start a lot of winter sowing things putting them in the (plastic) bags. Just line them up outside.”
The bags should be filled with some sort of absorbent material. Parrott uses potting soil, but moss, coffee filters or towels are also options, according to the website Gardening Tips and Tools.
Fill the bag about halfway with the soil or other material, then soak it thoroughly and squeeze out any excess water. Put the seeds on the material and fold it over them.
The zipper on the bag should be closed about a fourth of the way in on either side, leaving a gap in the middle, Parrott said. Some gardeners put the plants on a rack or even hung on a clothesline, she said.
The seeds should be checked every few days, and the absorbent material should be kept moderately wet, according to Gardening Tips and Tools. If mold or mildew develops, spray the seeds with a mister bottle filled with a 1:20 water/hydrogen peroxide solution or chamomile tea.
It’s important to make sure the bags are carefully labeled, Parrott said.
“I try to mark on (the side of the bag),” she said. “And usually I put a tag down (in the dirt) as well. I try to place it so I can see what it is by just looking down, not having to pull all of them out.”
The plastic bag method is especially useful for dahlias, Parrott said, which are a specialty of hers.
“I sprout them like this, and then I’ll go put them outside in my raised bed under frost cloth,” she said. “I (may be) crazy to start these plants this early inside. This is the second year in a row I’ve started my dahlias outside early, and it worked well for me to propagate them, and then all my dahlias will be planted outside Mother’s Day weekend.”
Plants that have been started in plastic bags can be stacked up on racks until it’s time to put them outside.
Keep plants in plastic bags moderately wet, spritzing them as needed.ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Quincy National Night Out scales down
QUINCY — Quincy’s National Night Out was more compact this year, which worked out well, said QPD Sgt. Joe Westby, who’s in charge of event planning for the Quincy Police Department. “National Night Out is a big event, and the fact that we’re able to shrink it up is like a breath of fresh air,” Westby said. “If you're always doing the same thing, it's kind of nice to switch things up and see how it works.” National Night Out took place Thursday on the block of C Street next to the police station, a shift from previous years when it was held at Lauzier Park. The smaller space meant fewer emergency vehicles for children to explore, but it also meant less walking for attendees. Grant County Fire District 5 brought a fire truck, and the Grant County Sheriff’s Office had a patrol boat. Renew, the Grant County behavioral health agency, had a booth and so did Quincy Partnership for Youth. Veterans Operation Creation sang the national anthem, and the Quincy Animal Shelter brought kittens that piled over each other making friends with passersby. As before, the QPD served grilled hot dogs.
Quincy Police retirements leave big shoes to fill
QUINCY — There are some big shoes to fill at the Quincy Police Department. “We’re losing 48 years of experience between them,” Quincy Police Chief Ryan Green said at the retirement party for Capt. Jorge Trujillo and Det. Damon Powell Thursday. Trujillo, who grew up in Sunnyside, has been with QPD for 19 years, he said, coming on as a patrol officer fresh out of the military. From there he served as a field training officer, a detective and finally captain. “I consider him my left-hand man,” Green said. “He runs the operations side of the house … He knows the agency very well, and he knows the community.” Trujillo has some projects around the house to tackle now that he’s retired, he said.
Big fun on a small scale
Wheat Land Communities’ Fair opens Thursday
RITZVILLE — The Wheat Land Communities’ Fair isn’t as big or as flashy as some of the county fairs around central Washington, but the folks who keep it going like it just the way it is. “It’s somewhere you can go and get an old-time traditional feeling, and you’re comfortable letting your kids roam the grounds and experience all that it has to offer,” said Board Member Lori Williams. “It’s more of a feeling than (one) specific thing,” The fair starts Thursday in Ritzville and runs through Sunday. Starting Friday, the 56th Ritzville Rodeo will take place alongside the fair at the rodeo grounds. This year the entertainment budget was expanded, Williams said, to be able to offer more fun that’s covered by the cost of admission. For the kids, there’s face painting, balloon art, Lego crafts, races, contests and games. Children can also ride on a little train towed around the fairgrounds behind a tractor.